Members from the Gator Party and the Change Party addressed the July 18 Big Five budget reading and the recent Rules and Ethics Committee removal of a Student Government Senator at the July 25 SG Senate meeting.
The July 18 budget reading was the first of the two Senate budget readings. The July 25 meeting opened the floor to further consider the amendments which were passed or failed at the previous meeting.
Senate President Oscar Santiago Perez (Change-District D) called the July 25 meeting to order at 7:15 p.m. — with 60 senators present — and adjourned at 11 p.m. due to the Southwest Recreation Center closing.
Student Body Treasurer Nyla Pierre expressed several concerns during public comment about how Amendment 1 to the budget was passed.
A standing vote has always been counted, and she believes Santiago Perez ignored motions made by Gator-affiliated Senators, Pierre said.
“Let’s prioritize the truth,” Pierre said. “Put procedures before party lines.”
Amendment 1 to the budget, authored by Sen. Raj Mia (Change-CALS), sought to allocate about a quarter million dollars to student organizations.
Several concerns from Gator affiliated Senators are due to how funding is being allocated, and Santiago Perez’s ruling on certain motions, which they deemed an abuse of power.
Budget and Appropriations Committee Chairman Blake Cox (Gator-District A) believes the entire budget is now invalidated given the passing of Amendment 1, he said.
Mia argued Pierre and Cox had an inaccurate view, citing the record from the official minutes
“Procedure has been followed,” Mia said.
Budget and Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman and Sen. John Brinkman (Independent-District B) strongly opposed the budget Tuesday due to a severe violation of proper procedure during its handling, he said.
Brinkman affirmed the budget was previously amended in clear defiance of the Senate Rules and Procedures, and the voter records speak for themselves, he wrote.
“The amendment didn't pass with enough votes in the first place,” Brinkman wrote. “It's deeply troubling that Senate president Oscar Santiago Perez actively chose to distort the truth in order to push through this budget.”
Majority Party Leader Simone Liang (Change-CLAS) and Mia addressed the removal of Sen. Timothy Sinclair (Change-CLAS) from the Chambers in public comment.
They both stated Sinclair went through some personal family grievances, and the Rules and Ethics Committee did not find his circumstances good enough.
Senator Zoe Richter (Change-CALS) spoke on Sinclair’s removal alongside Judiciary Vice Chairperson Joaquin Marcelino (Change-District D).
Both Richter and Marcelino serve on the Rules and Ethics Committee and asked for the decision to be reconsidered.
By the end of the debate and deliberations, the Senate voted to rescind the decision of the committee.
Sinclair’s removal from the chamber due to half-absences on past incomplete voter records will be up for reconsideration at the next Senate meeting.
The Fall 2023 reapportionment bill authored by the Ad-Hoc Committee on Fall 2023 Apportionment Realignment became another point of contention. The committee created the bill as a result of the SG Supreme Court case, Students for Fair Representation v. Halle.
In the case, several District A residents claimed the apportionment crafted last Summer affected their representation. The court did not vote to adopt their remedial.
Gator Senators proposed one at-large off-campus district that would encompass all 36 off-campus Senate seats. Change Senators contended the move would dilute off-campus voters’ representation.
Judiciary Chairperson Jonathan C. Stephens said without an apportionment map, the committee will have failed its constituents by jeopardizing the representation of thousands of students, they wrote in a press release.
After a roll call vote of 31 to 30, a motion to bring the bill to the floor failed.
Nearing the end of the meeting, Santiago Perez signed two bills. They signed the Resolution Condemning Florida Board of Governors’ Decision to Ban Asian Social Media Platforms at Public Universities, authored by Budget and Appropriations Committee Clerk Michael Lim and Sen. Laurie Wang (Gator-Freshman). The second was a Resolution Recognizing the Outstanding Efforts of SG Adviser Jerome Scott II, authored by Mia.
Contact Vivienne at vserret@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter @vivienneserret.
Vivienne Serret is a UF journalism and criminology senior, reporting for The Alligator's university desk as the student government reporter and managing editor for The Florida Political Review. She loves debating, lifting at the gym and singing.
